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Helvetia Shareholders’ Meeting approves all proposals by the Board of Directors

The shareholders approved all the proposals submitted by the Board of Directors at the ordinary Shareholders’ Meeting of Helvetia Holding, including a share split at a ratio of 1 to 5. The first trading day after the split will be 13 May 2019.

03.05.2019

At its 23rd ordinary Shareholders’ Meeting, Helvetia Holding presented a good business performance to the 2,053 shareholders with voting rights in attendance (representing 71.05% of the share capital). Helvetia achieved an IFRS earnings after tax of CHF 431.0 million and posted pleasing business volume growth of 3.9% in original currency to CHF 9,073.3 million. The Shareholders' Meeting approved the management report, financial statements and consolidated financial statements for 2018. It also discharged the Board of Directors and Executive Management from their activities in the 2018 financial year.

From a mere seller of products to solutions provider
Doris Russi Schurter, Chairwoman of the Board of Directors, explained to the Shareholders' Meeting how client requirements have changed in recent years. She noted to the shareholders how the advance of digitalisation is posing new challenges to insurance companies by requiring them to come up with real innovation. Helvetia is taking a proactive approach to these challenges. In claims settlement, for example, there are many practical services on offer that go beyond simply paying for losses. For example, Helvetia works with partner workshops in treating damage to vehicle bodywork and with the JAROWA tradesman platform for building damage. Summing up the company’s efforts, Doris Russi Schurter said: "By taking these measures, we are progressing from being a mere seller of products to a valuable solutions provider, while at the same time ensuring we don’t neglect the important core business under the helvetia 20.20 strategy."

New offers in the form of ecosystemshelvetia 20.20 also focuses on accessing new income sources. For example, Helvetia is developing the "Home" ecosystem, which addresses all the requirements related to housing and home ownership; including the search, valuation, financing and purchase of the property, protection, value retention and potential future sale. MoneyPark, Switzerland’s biggest mortgage broker of which Helvetia is a majority shareholder, is the main anchor within the ecosystem. A number of partners are involved in the ecosystem, such as PriceHubble for the property valuation or Immoledo, a useful tool for homeowners to preserve the value of their property. "The 'Home' ecosystem removes the traditional silos and creates a full customer journey related to housing. At the same time, this approach opens up new customer access channels", said Philipp Gmür, CEO of Helvetia Group at the Shareholders' Meeting.

Higher dividend and share split
The Shareholders' Meeting approved the proposal by the Board of Directors to increase the dividend by CHF 1.00 to CHF 24.00. It also approved a share split at a ratio of 1 to 5. Following good performance in recent years, the Helvetia share price is now at a high level. The aim of the split is to continue to make the share accessible to a broader investor base as attractive stock. The first trading day after the share split will be 13 May 2019.

Doris Russi Schurter confirmed as Chairwoman
The shareholders elected Doris Russi Schurter as Chairwoman of the Board of Directors for an additional term of office and confirmed the re-election of the other nine members of the Board of Directors. As announced in March 2019, Hans-Jürg Bernet will reach the statutory age limit of 70 this year and will thus leave the Board of Directors. Doris Russi Schurter praised his contribution: "On behalf of the Board of Directors and Executive Management I would like to thank Hans-Jürg Bernet most sincerely for his considerable and longstanding commitment. He has made a material contribution to Helvetia’s successful growth." A replacement candidate was not proposed to the Shareholders' Meeting, thus reducing the size of the Board of Directors to ten. Hans-Jürg Bernet was also a member of the Compensation Committee. The Shareholders' Meeting elected Regula Wallimann as his successor and the other three members of the Compensation Committee were each re-elected for a one-year term.

Compensation approved
The shareholders also approved the fixed and variable compensation for the members of the Board of Directors and Executive Management. All motions were approved.

About the Helvetia Group

In 160 years, the Helvetia Group has grown from a number of Swiss and foreign insurance companies into a successful international insurance group. Today, Helvetia has subsidiaries in its home market Switzerland as well as in the countries that make up the Europe market area: Germany, Italy, Austria and Spain. With its Specialty Markets market area, Helvetia is also present in France and in selected regions worldwide. Some of its investment and financing activities are managed through subsidiaries and fund companies in Luxembourg. The Group is headquartered in St.Gallen, Switzerland.

Helvetia is active in the life and non-life business, and also offers customised specialty lines and reinsurance cover. Its business activities focus on retail customers as well as small and medium-sized companies and larger corporates. With some 6,600 employees, the company provides services to more than 5 million customers. With a business volume of CHF 9.07 billion, Helvetia generated an IFRS result after tax of CHF 431.0 million in financial year 2018. The registered shares of Helvetia Holding are traded on the SIX Swiss Exchange under the symbol HELN.

Cautionary note

This document was prepared by Helvetia Group and may not be copied, altered, offered, sold or otherwise distributed to any other person by any recipient without the consent of Helvetia Group. The German version of this document is decisive and binding. Versions of the document in other languages are made available purely for information purposes. Although all reasonable effort has been made to ensure that the facts stated herein are correct and the opinions contained herein are fair and reasonable, where any information and statistics are quoted from any external source such information or statistics should not be interpreted as having been adopted or endorsed as accurate by Helvetia Group. Neither Helvetia Group nor any of its directors, officers, employees and advisors nor any other person shall have any liability whatsoever for loss howsoever arising, directly or indirectly, from any use of this information. The facts and information contained in this document are as up to date as is reasonably possible but may be subject to revision in the future. Neither Helvetia Group nor any of its directors, officers, employees or advisors nor any other person makes any representation or warranty, express or implied, as to the accuracy or completeness of the information contained in this document.

This document may contain projections or other forward-looking statements related to Helvetia Group which by their very nature involve inherent risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, and there is a risk that predictions, forecasts, projections and other outcomes described or implied in forward-looking statements will not be achieved. We caution you that a number of important factors could cause results to differ materially from the plans, objectives, expectations, estimates and intentions expressed in such forward-looking statements. These factors include: (1) changes in general economic conditions, in particular in the markets in which we operate; (2) the performance of financial markets; (3) changes in interest rates; (4) changes in currency exchange rates; (5) changes in laws and regulations, including accounting policies or practices; (6) risks associated with implementing our business strategies; (7) the frequency, magnitude and general development of insured events; (8) mortality and morbidity rates; (9) policy renewal and lapse rates as well as (10), the realisation of economies of scale as well as synergies. We caution you that the foregoing list of important factors is not exhaustive; when evaluating forward-looking statements, you should carefully consider the foregoing factors and other uncertainties. All forward-looking statements are based on information available to Helvetia Group on the date of its publication and Helvetia Group assumes no obligation to update such statements unless otherwise required by applicable law.